I could imagine the ruler of China looking at the current travails of the ruler of Russia and deciding maybe he won’t invade Taiwan quite yet.

• After all, going on the offensive is hard.
• Defenders these days have a lot of lightweight smart rockets with which two infantrymen can take out a really expensive piece of equipment.
• You can’t trust your military men when they tell you the troops are ready and rarin’ to go.
• The West has a lot of financial weapons.
• Maybe we won’t be welcomed by the Taiwanese.
• Maybe life is pretty good right now without the hassle of a war.

Or, I could imagine Xi concluding:

• Ha-ha, those incompetent Russians!
• What a buffoon Putin is!
• I’d never blunder like he did.
• My eloquent speech about the history of Taiwan will convince everybody, unlike Putin’s crackpot speech about the history of Ukraine.

You just never know with these guys.

[Comment at Unz.com]